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Carl Edwards on pole with speed of 202.452 mph for NASCAR Cup race at Michigan

June 13, 2013

Carl Edwards won the pole for Sunday's Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway with a speed of 202.452 mph. Photo by John Harrelson/Getty Images

NASCAR's fastest track lived up to its billing on Friday as Carl Edwards became the second Cup Series driver since 1987 to qualify on the pole for a race with a speed in excess of 200 mph.

Edwards, driving the No. 99 Ford Fusion, turned a lap with an average speed of 202.452 to win the pole for the Quicken Loans 400 on Sunday. Kurt Busch, in a Chevrolet SS, qualified second (201.213) and will start next to Edwards on the front row.

“This is one lap, and it's good,” Edwards said. “I'm really happy. The process that's going to put us out front of Hendrick Motorsports and the guys at Joe Gibbs Racing and the rest of the guys we race against on Sunday, this process is just starting. We can use these positive things, like the pole position, hopefully a win, Greg [Biffle's] run last week, we can move forward.

“We've just got to keep moving forward. There's not a faster car in the place than our car today, and that's a big deal.”

The pole is the first of the season for Edwards and his 12th pole in 316 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. It also qualified him for the 2014 Sprint Unlimited.

“You can't hide a bad engine out there on that race track,” Edwards said. “It's a big race track where big power means something.”

Edwards, however, was unable to grab the track record from Marco Ambrose, who posted a speed of 203.241 at MIS last June following a repave of the track.

“The track is really good,” Kahne said. “It's lost some of the that black coloring it had, and it's turned gray. It still has a lot of grip and it's smooth. It's fast right now.”

NASCAR Sprint Cup Qualifying

After Friday qualifying; race Sunday

At Michigan International Speedway

Brooklyn, Mich.

Lap length: 2 miles

(Car number in parentheses)

1. (99) Carl Edwards, Ford, 202.452 mph.

2. (78) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 201.879.

3. (5) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 201.213.

4. (27) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 200.803.

5. (43) Aric Almirola, Ford, 200.764.

6. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 200.725.

7. (33) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 200.63.

8. (20) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 200.568.

9. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 200.457.

10. (42) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 200.445.

11. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 200.406.

12. (88) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 200.1.

13. (56) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 200.05.

14. (14) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 199.789.

15. (17) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 199.761.

16. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 199.75.

17. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 199.689.

18. (31) Jeff Burton, Chevrolet, 199.656.

19. (16) Greg Biffle, Ford, 199.38.

20. (51) Bobby Labonte, Chevrolet, 199.358.

21. (29) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 199.231.

22. (55) Mark Martin, Toyota, 199.214.

23. (9) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 198.692.

24. (13) Casey Mears, Ford, 198.593.

25. (21) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 198.429.

26. (38) David Gilliland, Ford, 198.364.

27. (15) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 198.292.

28. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 198.08.

29. (24) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 197.922.

30. (98) Michael McDowell, Ford, 197.217.

31. (34) David Ragan, Ford, 196.813.

32. (47) A J Allmendinger, Toyota, 196.791.

33. (83) David Reutimann, Toyota, 196.276.

34. (30) David Stremme, Toyota, 196.266.

35. (39) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 195.737.

36. (7) Dave Blaney, Chevrolet, 195.514.

37. (10) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, owner points.

38. (35) Josh Wise, Ford, owner points.

39. (32) Ken Schrader, Ford, owner points.

40. (36) J.J. Yeley, Chevrolet, owner points.

41. (93) Travis Kvapil, Toyota, owner points.

42. (87) Joe Nemechek, Toyota, owner points.

43. (19) Mike Bliss, Toyota, owner points.

Failed to Qualify

44. (44) Scott Riggs, Ford, 184.393.

Mike Pryson
- Mike Pryson covered auto racing for the Jackson (Mich.) Citizen Patriot and M-Live Media Group from 1991 until joining Autoweek as online motorsports editor In 2012.
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